1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle driving control unit for avoiding an obstacle which exists ahead of a vehicle.
2. Related Art
In recent years, driving control units for detecting an obstacle existing ahead on a driving path of a subject vehicle and guiding the subject vehicle to dodge the detected obstacle have been developed and used in order to reduce a driving stress of a driver and to improve a safety of the vehicle.
In JP-A-07-160994, for example, a technique is disclosed in which a steering actuator is controlled based on information on a driving lane to thereby steer a vehicle, so as to allow the vehicle to be driven along the driving lane. Then, in the technique, when an obstacle exists ahead on the driving lane of the vehicle, an obstacle avoidance steering control is executed, so that the vehicle is steered based on a programmed steering control which follows a preset steering mode based on a relative distance and relative speed between the vehicle and the obstacle from the vehicle starts an obstacle avoidance operation until the vehicle enters an obstacle avoidance area.
However, in the driving control of JP-A-07-160994, since the obstacle avoidance is executed based on the programmed steering control which follows the preset steering mode, a driver's will may not be reflected to the avoidance of the obstacle, and the driver may have uncomfortable feeling.